Competing proposals go before voters Nov. 8

Big City, Big Deals

In a wide-ranging interview with Crain's, Detroit's mayor warns that competing Rise Together Detroit's ballot proposal would “guarantee we never see a (new) auto parts plant in this city again.” He also touched on schools, public safety initiatives and dead trees.

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan is voting for what he says is the more manageable version of two proposed ordinances requiring "community benefits" be provided by would-be developers — and came out swinging against a more stringent version.

Speaking with Crain’s reporters and editors Wednesday evening, Duggan said that if a community benefits ordinance proposed by Rise Together Detroit passes in the Nov. 8 general election it would “guarantee we never see a (new) auto parts plant in this city again” because of the requirements it places on developers.

“Getting manufacturing jobs in the city will be over if Proposal A passes,” Duggan said, adding that he will vote for Proposal B, which is the other proposed community benefits ordinance before city voters in two months.

The plans are generally as follows:

Proposal A, developed by Rise Together Detroit, would require that projects of $15 million or more that receive $300,000 or more in things like tax abatements or incentives enter into a legally binding community benefits agreement with a group of “representative residents, businesses and nonprofit organizations” within the “host community,” based on U.S. Census tract information.

Those agreements would specify what the developer would provide to the community in which the development is located. Those could be things such as education and land use programs, local small business and resident inclusion and participation in the project. Environmental protections and other measures are also considered community benefits.

“You'd have to send a notice to the city clerk,” Duggan said.

“The clerk and the council somehow contact people in the surrounding Census tract. Those people somehow form a committee, but Proposal A doesn’t say how they form a negotiating committee, doesn’t say how many people are on the negotiating committee. They could be negotiating with 50 or 100 people. It doesn’t say how long the negotiations go on, if they go on months or even years. If the site happens to be near the city border, the neighboring Census tracts would include the suburbs and you could have suburbanites who would get to say no to a development in Detroit.”

In the development community, Proposal B, which was developed by Detroit City Council member Scott Benson and others as a less onerous alternative to Proposal A, would require community benefits agreements for developments $75 million or more and receiving $1 million or more in public incentives or on property with a cumulative market value of $1 million or more that was sold or transferred to a developer.

You can read more about how some in the development community views the community benefits ordinance issue by reading my story from late July.

Duggan said his comments are not a public endorsement of Proposal B. But he said there are compelling arguments toward the idea of institutionalizing these agreements for large projects.

“Endorsing suggests a level of public campaigning that is different than a personal decision. But right now, I’m going to vote for it,” he said.

During Wednesday’s wide-ranging interview, Duggan also addressed other pressing issues in the city. Here are a few of them:

Project Green Light

The Project Green Light crime-fighting program is expanding after starting with eight gas stations and expanding to include places including McDonald’s restaurants.

The program uses a central camera system, high-resolution cameras and bright lighting to capture clear images of license plates and criminals.

An announcement is expected at noon Thursday detailing how joining the program is to become more affordable for small businesses.

Detroit Public Schools

Detroit Public Schools enrollment numbers won’t be officially known for about a month, and Duggan is holding off on discussing any new initiatives with DPS until it’s more fully known how many students the district has.

Whether it’s in crisis or stable mode, he said, remains to be seen.

“We have a truancy issue in the city that we need to deal with. It’s not always predictable the first few days of school,” he said.

As for the Detroit Education Commission, a contentious sticking point in the DPS bailout legislation passed by the GOP-led Legislature and signed by Gov. Rick Snyder this summer, Duggan said he’s not done pressing the issue.

“To get things through a Republican Legislature, I need allies in addition to the governor. I’ve learned my lesson and we’ll come back in a different way.”

Duggan also said he'll make a decision on whether he'll seek a second term by the end of the year.

Dead trees (really)

I suppose there are worse problems to have.

Duggan said one of the issues that has come to the surface as streetlights, public transportation and blighted properties are being addressed is a slew of dead trees. In all, the city has about 3,000 of them that are dangerous and need to come down.

Duggan said Wednesday that the city had an extra $3 million in its roads budget this year due to an uncharacteristically mild winter requiring less snow removal and salting. That money is being put toward removing the trees, he said, in a process that’s expected to take about eight or nine months to complete.

“If the house next to you was about to fall on your house, the dead tree wasn’t really on your mind. Today, the dead tree is a high priority,” he said.